A fun diversion.
Let me first start of by saying I love the Metal Gear franchise. This game however is borderline not involved with that universe. Raiden is here.. Luckily for cheap on early on you get to change your outfit to Frank Jaegar proper. You still have to hear Raiden whine about crap in the cut scenes though.
However, I will base this review on the games own merits. Drawing no further conclusions by comparison to MGS.
Pros:
- You get to be a ninja, GOTY. Seriously though Ninja's are awesome.
- You get to cut everything up real good.
- I ran up a barrage of missiles and cut a helicopter into 1000+ pieces.
- You get to cut everything up real good.
- Really great soundtrack
Cons:
- The enemies are tired and repeat too often.
- I didn't find the combos between weak and strong attacks compelling (Left me yearning for DMC/Ninja Gaiden Black)
- The parry system is fine but its inconsistent. Leading to excessive frustration.
- There really isn't a dodge system (Offensive Defense is just striking and dodging at the same time, which I also found to be inconsistent. Maybe it was just me but I consider myself on the high end of average at character action games)
-HE IS A NINJA, WHY IS THERE NO ROLL ABILITY. Major oversight
- The camera is unruly. I found it easier to control with Mouse and Keyboard. But that hurt my pinky as ninja sprint and Zandatsu are on Ctrl and L.Shift respectively. I couldn't find a happy replacement for these key bindings either. Apparently it doesn't like my mouses side buttons.
- Often the best strategy to kill things was to Zandatsu the crap out of everything and run away, rinse and repeat. That got boring, however you get to cut stuff up real good(see the Pros section lol)
- Even though its only around 6 hours, I don't see myself finishing it. Never say never except in this sentence.
I can't truly recommend this even as a Metal Gear fan but it is a fun diversion. For whatever reason there is no mixed option and I wouldn't recommend that you NOT play this at all.
